Hi Sandeep, I love your sense of humour. This was charming and funny...
As for those who do not avail themselves of "the priceless works of one (exceptional) Mr. Deepak Chopra".....well, sadly, they're missing out!

Thank you, thank you and did I say thank you? I thought I was the only one that noticed this phenomenon.
Growing up singing bhajans and being really good at it naturally I decided to become a famous bhajan singer. Bhagavan Das and Krishna Das are at the top of that right now. I am trying to become the next bhajan star and when I noticed non-indians being recognised for it I thought hmmm, maybe this will be tougher than I imagined.
Au contraire but likewise to the accent of a Bangalore call centre worker...
"Hare Ramo Hare Ramo"!

Hi, yeah ..it was funny. You certainly dont take yourself seriously which is not such a bad thing .sadly it is imperative on topics like this however to realise that the very observation you are trying to make may have its roots .the same phenomenon applies to others when they dont take indians seriously .We seem to take our Indianness either s a joke or mostly use this lighthearted vein to hide the hurt. You dont have to be either. Hurt or ashamed. i am a yoga teacher among other things. Now i will not take your comments on yoga seriously. Why? because yoga doesnt need you, me or any of us. Truth outlasts all. Truth finally has the last laugh. i daresay this applies for deepak as well.

Funny! I loved your comment on the "mysticalization" of your culture. It's funny indeed... but the more our collective consciousness expands, the less mystical spirituality is. A spiritual way of life is actually very practical and down to earth and requires no external show. That's one thing I love about Deepak. He keeps it as "down to earth" as possible and demonstrates the true magic inside. What a contrast to other teachers from India I've met, who wear their robes and "far away" spiritual look and in one way or another tell Westerners to not even bother :D Yes, they usually criticize Deepak, I find that very funny...

yeah Sandeep ...
you are very funny ...

had forgotten you are up there ...

muaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

yes getting all attention ...

how can one miss you ???

SAND DEEP ...

could say much about that but never mind ...
let me behave !!!!

yes the power of narrow perceptional perspectives ...

keeping us separate ...and often so very alone ...

wondering what is we are really affraid of ...

the demons we keep creating out there .. giving us permission to lash out or implode in and be so self righteous about it ...

or the exquisite beauty we have been born to become ...

from the inside out ...

in everything that we do...

just as we are ....

naked wild and free ...

hummmm
my passion for nakedeness ...

oh yes .. with rain falling down on me

like God's kisses ...

hummm
since I was a little girl...

singing in the window for God to bless the earth with rain ...

my most vivid memories have been walking in the rain ... running in the rain ... climbing in the rain ... crying in the rain ...

you name it ...
oh yes .. one is missing ...

making love in the rain ...

oh well ...

who knows ???

dhieyryrirhjeyty
yeah yeah yeah

getting there...
he ehe ehhe

I'll write on yours Sandeep and give you the attention you want! Very funny!

We are more alike than we are different...Indian or non-Indian...the bottom line is HUMANITY.

Thanks!

Sharon

I looovve the rock and roll versions of bhajans.

I find it quite endearing how seriously the west takes yoga. There's a big Namaste sign on the door - the meaning given is "I bow to the God within you". Class starts with a short sanskrit chant. Talk about heavy accents!

I think the west is rather obsessed with the meaning of things. Indians just go about their life without bothering about the meaning of things. The meaning becomes clear with practice. This is one huge difference between east and west I've noticed.

This was funny Sandeep!

I attended one of those* yoga classes by some one.. and they chanted "Satnam" broken as Sat nam.. and the chant went as you would shout out LEFT RIGHT in a parade..

I have always felt that "religion" was a product of the west - the east always understood the difference between spirituality and religion - which is:

Religion = Spirituality + Social BS

that is why in west everything is "packaged" .. just as spirituality could not survive on its own .. and had to be packaged as a religion.. as in categorized!

On the other hand the East was happy with the ambiguity that lack of structure comes along with.. the ability to see the method in the madness!

This is one reason why something that was unstructured in India could only be adopted here AFTER it was packaged. And people like Deepak Chopra and that Yoga guru who does yoga in a heated classroom did.. they packaged it so the westerners could align themselves with it..

not that it was bad.. its just that packaging - just like religion - prohibits one to think freely and look beyond the package's limits!

Liberty is in Freedom!

cheers,
-d.
www.dkapoor.com/blog

I guess I'm a little confused...there seems to be a mockery here of the United States when it seems to me that the only way we are going to reach a more peaceful existence is through understanding others. Should an Americans feel bad about being interested in other people's cultures? The west gets bashed for so many things, many of which have to do with their ethnocentrism, and when people that grew up in America feel that they can't relate to the majority of their country, where does that leave them? Should they not turn to other cultures to find a more meaningful way of existence that was lacking in ther own? It seems that we can't win- it's hard to be part of a country that so many in the world dislike. I don't feel as though I fit in to the majority here, and yet apparantly it's not appreciated when we show a reverence for a diffrent culture. And in that second comic- just as that blond American is ignorant for the caption, it is equally ignorant to lump all Americans together as was done in the writing above.

Adrienne - it wasn't meant in a bad way. Nobody can escape stereotypes. I was just looking at some of the cartoons on the "comic strip" link and it's full of Indian stereotypes. You can go in there and have a hearty laugh at our expense.

Yes it's true everyone bashes Americans these days. I think this is part of the success syndrome. See how they bash Speilberg, Bill Gates, and now Google is coming within the sights on account of it's enormous success. Of course there are other reasons for America-bashing. I was speaking with a German the other day and he was grumbling about how Germans have such a bad rap and my Korean friend told me over lunch yesterday that she overheard her co-workers say something like "that's because she's Korean" and she's totally upset that they're talking about her foreignness. So this is a part of life with all of us being super-sensitive about our identities. I'm in total hot water on this site for defending Hindus. You just have to take it in your stride specially since you'll have to live with america-bashing for a while. When I visit India all my friends pounce on me as if I am personally responsible for all of Bush's faults and I find myself in the absurd position of actually defending everything that goes on here.

True story - first time I took a yoga class, the person who organized the class (it was sponsored by my office and we did yoga in a conference room during lunch hours) put me in the advanced class because I am Deepak Chopra's neice! I had to explain to her that even though my uncle is a spiritual guru to many, I had never done yoga before and was not naturally limber!!!

Thanks for all of the interesing perspectives and your response, Divya

oh a funny ...

there I was climbing in teh mountains ...
rain decided to pour down ...

to watch my breasts becoming transparent ... covering them with my hands ...

as if possible ...

suddenly noticed my tuckies felt funny ...

looked down ...
foam coming out as if I was in a washing machine somehow ...

splach splash ...

there comes more foam ...

and more foam ...

what the hell ???

noticing everyone had stopped (I was with a hiking club) ...

and were pondering withme what teh hell was going on ...

to listen to my own laughter as if I had discovered gold somewhere ...

so out of place it all felt to me ...

to realize my domestic back then has washed them and had obviously not taken the soap out ...

and my breasts ???

too embarassing to describe as my hands could only be in one place at a time ...

Hi Baba: It's Dave--and...I still love your posts--and I believe I understand them too!!!

Thinking of you and returning the energy of your "wild and dynamic" spirit!!!! Dave

Hi Dave ...
love your posts too ...

oh my wild and dynamic spirit ...

hummm

when it gets ignited it takes super glue to keep me quiet ...

yes my warrior ain;t easy to manager gracefully at times ...

but getting there ...

on teh other end i love this heat that simply says " lets get into action ... NOW!"

all part of being human I would say ...

teh reason why I love this forum ...

where I can just be me

somtimes up ...
sometimes down ...
always around ...

and that 's OK!

have a lovely day dear Dave ...

I am an Indian who has never read Deepak Chopra - and probably because I felt it was geared towards non-Indians. But I realize my failure was allowing that distinction to be the reason.

Both Adrienne and Divya brought up cultural stereotypes - the race consciousness that is a part of our society. And to say that racism or race conscious behavior does not exist would be a lie. But Adrienne is right when she asks how is it that Americans (more specifically White Americans in this context) are supposed to understand other cultures, if other cultures disassociate and make fun of them when they are making a valid effort.

As a first generation immigrant, there are millions of things that I do differently than my parents would have in India - many of which come from the American/English/European White culture, because it is the dominant and most accepted racial behavior. If a White American (generally a yuppie) is going to a yoga class - an Indian (yuppie) should go too. Because if there is interest in our culture, the Asian culture, the African culture, we must help cultivate it as people of that culture. Otherwise, American behavior will be based off of only the English/European behavior and mannerisms accepted today.

And with this understanding, I thank Deepak Chopra, Meera Nair, and everyone else who is making a valid effort to openly share our culture with others.